Review

I received the Sigma 30mm and 19mm f/2.8 EX DN lenses, alone with the Sony Nex-5n about a month ago from BHPhotoVideo.com. Over the course of the month I’ve had some really good opportunities to test these lenses out in a variety of ways including video focus tests, corner sharpness tests, fringing, shooting into the sun, and more!! I also shot mostly in jpeg mode for this round as the automatic lens correction that is built into the Nex-5n is awesome!! I also tweaked my jpeg profile a bit on the Nex-5n by lowering the sharpness and saturation a tad. The JPEGs now look much more natural in my opinion, and not slightly over sharpened like the standard JPEG images normally are.

Sigma 30mm and 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lenses

Sigma E-Mount 30mm and 19mm f/2.8 EX DN lenses

The Sigma E-Mount lenses both came in the standard Sigma padded pouch which is quite nice, and a bonus in my book as most lenses don’t come with protective pouches at all.

Here’s a closer look at the Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens from a few angles. The 30mm version is almost identical in design from the exterior perspective.

Sigma E-Mount 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens

Sigma E-Mount 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – E-Mount Side

Sigma 30 and 19mm f/2.8 EX DN lenses on the Sony Nex-5n

Nex-5n and the Sigma E-Mount 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens

Nex-5n and the Sigma E-Mount 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens

Nex-5n and the Sigma E-Mount 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens

Nex-5n and the Sigma E-Mount 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens

Nex-5n and the Sigma E-Mount 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens

Nex-5n and the Sigma E-Mount 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – With Lens Hood

Inside Lens Elements and MTF Chart

The exteriors of these Sigma lenses are very similar, but the inside is obviously a different story. You also may wonder why the Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN lens is physically larger?? Check out the lens elements illustrations below and it will clear things up for you.

Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens Elements

Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens Elements

Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – MTF

Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – MTF

Official Overview and Specs

Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens Official Overview and Full Specs

Overview

This high-performance standard lens is designed exclusively for mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras and has the equivalent angle of view as a 60mm lens (35mm equivalent focal length) on the Micro Four Thirds systems and 45mm (35mm equivalent focal length) on the E-mount system.

Two glass mold aspherical lenses, including a double-sided aspherical lens, provide excellent correction for all types of aberration. The inner focusing system corrects the fluctuation of aberration to maintain image quality regardless of the focal distance.

Sigma’s Super Multi-Layer Coating reduces flare and ghosting as well as provides sharp and high contrast images even at the maximum aperture. The superior telecentric optical design improves the image quality throughout the frame. The optical design also allows the lens to be compact and lightweight. This lens benefits from a newly developed linear AF motor which moves the lens elements directly without the need for gears or the drive of other mechanical parts. This system ensures accurate and quiet autofocusing, making the lens suitable for video recording as well as still photos.

The lens features a rounded 7 blade diaphragm creating an attractive blur to the out of focus areas of the image. This Sigma 30mm F2.8 EX DN has a minimum focusing distance of 30cm/11.8in and a maximum magnification ratio of 1:8.1.

Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens Official Overview and Full Specs

The Sigma 19 mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens for Sony E Mount Camera is a Digital Neo (DN) lens specifically designed for mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. On a Sony E mount camera (NEX), its focal length is equivalent to 28.5 mm. It has a newly developed linear AF motor for swift and accurate autofocus, making it ideal for video as well as still photography.

Three glass mold aspherical lenses offer excellent correction for distortion, color aberration and field curvature. The inner focusing system corrects the fluctuation of aberration to maintain image quality regardless of the focal distance. Multi-layer coating reduces flare and ghosting, and provides sharp and contrast images even at the maximum aperture. The seven blades of the diaphragm produce a pleasing quality in the out-of-focus areas of an image (bokeh).

Sigma 30mm and 19mm EX DN Lens Build Quality

Overall the build quality is pretty good on these lenses, but not in the same class as the Sony E-Mount lenses in my opinion. The skin is actually plastic, where as the Sony’s are metal, but this does make the lenses significantly lighter as a positive! The focus is pretty good, but not as smooth when transition from one focus point to another as the Sony’s. It’s newly designed focus motor is very quiet, but still a little bit louder than the Sony’s AF motor. Possible just due to the plastic skin though as it doesn’t suppress sound as much I suppose. Theses lenses do have a quiet motor though compared to a standard Non HSM A-Mount Sigma lenses or the Sony DT 35mm f/1.8 Lens for example, which I also used for comparison purposes.

The Focus is also a little less consistent when locking on, compared to the Sony 50mm f/1.8 OSS Lens in particular, as you can clearly see in the comparative sample video footage coming later in this review.

When using manual focus the focus it’s very smooth and offers a large focus ring area which is easy to grip and fine tune.

The lens hood is for the Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN lens is also made from plastic and screws on with a very nice locking click. It also fits on backwards very snuggle making the overall circumference of the lens only slightly fatter. Sony’s E-Mount lens hoods mostly fit like this as well, and I really like it the engineering efforts to keep the lens footprint as small as possible.

Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – Real World Sample Photos

This first pic was kind of a surprise as I did not expect roses to be growing on this old fence. What I like about this sample photo in particular is how drastic the separation is before and after the focal plane. I was at the minimum focus distance of ~12 inches for this image which exploits this type of lens quality very well! These real world sample pics I slightly tweaked in Lightroom 4, in regards to contrast. I was using AutoHDR for a few images and they tend to come out a tad flat strait off the camera. I also added a tad of vibrancy as I De-saturated my JPEG profile as mentioned in the beginning of the review.

Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – Test Photos

Here’s a standard 3/4 view of a run down building that shows off overall lens quality’s and flaws at once. I framed the shot so the top left corner had some harsh contrasting lines to see how the Sigma optics holds up in these tough conditions!!

Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – Real World Sample Photos

Here’s a few pics I adjusted slightly in Lightroom 4 to show you what you can expect to get with this lens in the real world. I had to add a bit of black as the AutoHDR’s tend to be a tad flat. I also jacked up the vibrance a bit to make the greens sing a little more.

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – AutoHDR @ 6ev’s

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – AutoHDR @ 6ev’s

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – AutoHDR @ 6ev’s

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – AutoHDR @ 6ev’s

The Blue Angles Plane again 😉

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – AutoHDR @ 6ev’s

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – AutoHDR @ 6ev’s

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens – AutoHDR @ 6ev’s

Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN lens – Test Photos

This first image is just a simple perspective image that shows the fall-off of sharpness pretty well from left to right, with a decent chunk of the sign being sharp.

Here’s a fewphotos of some heavy duty batteries taken at f/2.8, f/4, and f/8 for comparison. Not the greatest lighting, but a ton of detail.

Click the photos for the large 1200px version!!

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/2.8, 1/6sec, ISO 100, tri-pod

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/4, 1/3sec, ISO 100, tri-pod

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/8, 1.3sec, ISO 100, tri-pod

Here’s a quick snapshot of the rectifiers that convert the AC electricity to DC and then intern charge the large battery plant you see above. Corner sharpness is pretty solid on this lens, and this snapshot shows it off nicely on the top corners.

Raw Sample Photos using the Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens

I decided to shoot some images in the raw format for maximum quality as the dynamic range was pretty high. Jpegs just don’t cut it when it comes to serious post processing as they are compressed files. The Sony camera’s do a pretty good job with the JPEG files, but the file format is all compressed down to save card and hard drive space. The Raw files have a tone more color, and dynamic range information to pull from when doing serious editing. What this means is you can push the colors, highlights, and shadows much further on a raw file in a post processing program that you can a jpeg file. The files are a bit larger though, so it takes longer for them to write over to the memory card, and they take up more room!

The great thing about the raw file however, is YOU are the developer. You can work the photograph like Ansel Adams did in the dark room, except using the digital dark room of today!! Meaning a raw processing program like Adobe Lightroom 4, and then you can get a million different variations, renders etc…

The Sony cameras have some awesome filters and and scenes modes that do this kind of thing for you, but it’s a lot of fun to play with the raw files and develop the photo yourself. It feels like you were more involved/ control of the process or “art” of photography for lack of a better word 🙂 I certainly enjoy it, and I have several Tutorials on How-To Develop Raw Files in Lightroom Here >>

Also, when shooting raw with the Nex-5n the lens corrections normally made on the camera are Not applied to the raw file. Therefore, you will see the true lens flaws and noise UN-corrected in these shots. The flaws are easily removable in Lightroom 4, or any other raw editing program though if you choose to develop the file. The in camera lens correction really is an awesome feature, but I often prefer the ease and convenience of shooting in jpeg mode with a slightly tweaked profile!

Here’s a nice R6 I saw in a church parking while cruising home yesterday. You’ll notice some green fringing on the verticals in the top right corner of the 100% crop. You will also notice the raw image appears a bit softer than the jpeg, but it’s just not sharpened in camera like the JPEG files are.

These next few Raw “Real World” photos are from the Basha Kill Wildlife Preserve. I stopped on the way to work one day and the morning fog was just starting to clear up and made for a interesting mood of light.

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/8, 1/320sec, ISO 100

Check out this pretty nasty magenta fringing!! Again, easily fixable with any raw editor, and if your shooting in Jpeg, this will be corrected In Camera!!

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/8, 1/320sec, ISO 100

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/8, 1/100sec, ISO 100

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/8, 1/125sec, ISO 100

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/8, 1/160sec, ISO 100

Nex-5n, Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens @ f/8, 1/400sec, ISO 100

HD Video Sample Footage

In these HD Video Samples, I was testing a few lens combinations at the same time, so it works out perfect for comparison purposes on both AF speed, noise, accuracy, etc…

Be sure to select the maximum HD Quality for the best viewing experience and sharpness!!

Sigma E-Mount Lens Review – Conclusion

The Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN lens and Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Lens are solid performers all around in my opinion. Their about the same sharpness as far as I can tell, and both suffer from similar flaws as far as very slight corner softening and chromatic aberrations/ fringing. The relatively small flaws on these lenses are totally reasonable though, considering the ~$200 price tag!! Build quality is the same on both version being pretty decent overall, but not in the same class as the Sony E-Mount lenses. Focus is the same on both lenses, although the 19mm being a wider, tends to have an easier time finding a focus point in certain scenes. Especially when using the wide focus mode on the Nex-5n. It’s important to note however, they don’t focus as smooth or as quiet as the Sony E-Mount lenses, and this makes a pretty big difference with video quality in particular. The build quality is also a little less rugged with the plastic skin, but it’s much lighter than metal as a positive!

The Sigma 19mm lens has significantly better corner sharpness than the the Sony 16mm Pancake lens in particular. The Pancake lens to it’s advantage is physically much thinner and optically wider, which is a harder to achieve. Hence all the after market companies coming out with similar/ redundant sizes. Even though we clearly want fast primes and ultra wide angles for the Nex camera system.

Most of the Sony E-Mount lenses offer OSS, which is a huge advantage to low light shooting over the Sigma lenses and part of the reason they are about ~$100 US more expensive.However, the Sigma lenses are 1/3rd less money, so you cannot expect the same build quality, focus etc.. Again, a great value for the money, although I personally prefer the better built Sony E-Mount lenses.

Bottom line, their totally worth the money in my opinion and are sharp, affordable, lightweight lenses!! They also come with a high quality lens pouch which is a really nice bonus for when you leave the lenses in the car or whatever. I like to walk as lite as possible when street shooting and leaving a lens lying around in the car is not good practice! My only beef with these lenses is the build quality, but it’s by no means poor, just what you get for this price point I suppose.

Would love to here your thoughts on the Sigma 30 and 19mm f/2.8 EX DN Lenses in the comments area below!!

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23 Comments

I just bought a Sigma 30mm DX EN today. I love my SEL50F18 but its POV is to much tight for many situations. Simply already had a 30mm lens with my previous Samsung NX10 and loved that lens and focal distance as “all around”. I hope not to be disappointed with the final results of this little lens.

The Sigma E-Mount lenses performed decent in low light, but they are on the cheaper end of build quality and proce point. So. with that being understood the focus is not the smoothest and it can hunt a bit more than a Sony E-Mount for ex. I notice right when it’s about to lock focus, it will adjust again often just to make sure and then lock. The Sony’s don’t seem to do that either.

These issues are overall minor in my opinion considering how affordable, compact, and sharp the Prime Sigma E-Mount lenses are.

Thanks for the great advise, Jay! You’ve finally helped me decide whether to get one of these or not (I’ve been going back and forth looking through reviews and forums for a few days). With that, I’ll be getting one soon for sure.

They are both very good lens but offer a significant difference in focal length. What style of photography do you use most? Personally I would go with the 30mm because I already have the 16mm pancake, and the 30mm would be better for street photography I think. If your looking for a wider angle for Landscapes in particular, then I would recommend the 19mm sigma lens.

Recently went with a couple of colleagues lens hunting and found the sigma line up in a store her in Kuwait. This is the plan- get the sigma19 mm for landscapes, the Sony 24 mm for portraits/street photography , or get a adapter( http://urlm.in/qatk) for canon to emount and stock up on canon lenses ?? plus aspherical lens.. what are those?

Sounds like a plan!! Not sure if I would stock up on the full size canon EF lenses though? They are excellent quality, but if you don’t have any I would recommend sticking with the Sony gear. If you do want to go the lens adapter route I would recommend looking at smaller lenses like the Canon FD, Minolta MC/MD, or Olympus OM for example. Check this article out: Ultimate Lens adapter Combos Guide for the Sony Nex Camera System >>

Don’t forget, if you do go with Full Size lenses for your Nex system, the Sony A-Mount lenses will work with Full AF if you use the LA-EA1 or Higher Tech LA-EA2 Lens Adapters.

Aspherical Lens – refers to a particular type of high quality lens element that has a special non-spherical surface to converge central and peripheral light rays at a single focal point perfectly. Lenses may also be referred to as asperhical if it has one of these elements inside.

What the Asperical lens actually does is virtually eliminate spherical aberration and also reduce other optical aberrations compared to a “simple lens”. Basically, better quality optics which is why the cheaper lenses don’t have them.

Hi Jay,
I am a super newbie in photography and I am deciding between buy Sony NEX 5N vs. Sony NEX F3 or NEX 5N vs. NEX 7 but NEX 7 is a little bit expensive, I already purchased the Sigma both 30 +19 mm for $199 which i think is a good price overall. Is there any huge difference between image quality between NEX F3 vs. NEX 5N and NEX 5N vs. NEX7?
Thank you and waiting for your response.
Have a great day.

Your question is great and here is the deal. The Image quality between the Nex-f3 vs the Nex-5n is pretty much identical in the real world. The Nex-7 is also pretty much the same for the most part, although not as good in the high iso areas, and not the best for extended video due to over heating issues. The Nex-7 has a high resolution 24mp sensor is awesome at normal ISO levels(100-1600) if you want to print large, or if you want maximum editing/ cropping potential after the photos are taken in post processing.

The Lens is also a huge factor when it comes to image quality, and the Nex-7 being a higher resolution with pick up these lens flaws more clearly. It’s worth noting if you don’t plan on printing large I would go with the Nex-5n or Nex-F3 bundles for the low light advantage and savings in cost. Being a total beginer, It makes more sense to stay away from the Nex-7’s pro interface I think, although I like it personally much better 🙂 The Nex-f3 and Nex-5n have a much more user friendly beginner oriented menu system that makes common sense if you know nothing about photography. Check out some of the reviews for tons of image samples!!

Here is the Raw data that is ultimately what determines the overall image quality in the end when you add the lens courtesy of DXOMark.com

I agree with everything Jay said above. I am also a relative beginner, and because of that, decided to pick up the F3 last summer. Unfortunately, it is much more attractively priced now 🙁

Anyway, I would recommend the F3 to any beginner. There is no reason to spend more money when you don’t have to, especially if you (we) are not experts in photography, and don’t know exactly how everything works.

I’ve found the F3 to be very intuitive and easy to use out of the box, and it has easily allowed me to learn about 1000 things about photography that I didn’t know eight months ago. I think at the time of my research, I found that the major difference between the F3 and N5 was that the N5 had a little better image quality when it came to video. Not a big deal in my opinion, and not worth the additional $150 (at the time).

I recommend the F3 based on price alone, but also feel that it is an amazing camera for someone to learn the basics of photography and work toward manual mode… which is my ultimate goal.

Thanks for all of your amazing reviews! I’m really learning a lot each time I visit your site.

I am very intrigued by these two lenses, and considering the price, they seem like a really addition to my NEX setup. Not being a very experienced photographer, I don’t know much about the pros/cons of not having OSS on a lens. How much of a deal breaker is it to not have that? I guess that you really can’t have everything you want for $100/lens, but I do like to shoot my kids often while they play. Am I right when I say that not having OSS is mostly only a factor in low light situations?

The size and weight of the lenses on the camera seem very appealing, and I’d love to have a wider angle for walking around the city… which is why I’m interested in the 19mm. the pics I’ve looked at online seem pretty good, and the reviews across the web are favorable.

Sorry for the long message, I just wanted to get your opinion on these lessons from the perspective of taking photos of kids and general walking around shooting. I currently have a Minolta w-rokkor 35 2.8 that seems pretty decent, so I don’t know how much I’d benefit from the Sigma 30mm… aside from the obvious auto features.

The OSS is very helpful in low light for sure, but also helpful anytime the shutter speed is slower than ideal. It’s not necessary at all if your shutter speed is higher than 1/60sec or so though. If your using a tri-pod you don’t need OSS at all either. I would go for the 19mm and see how it works for you. If your not happy with the focus speed or something else, you can sell it for almost what you paid and upgrade to another lens or whatever. The price is so cheap it’s hard to not try it out!!

I have ‘high’ hopes for this lens—or how I justified a recent purchase of the Sigma 19mm for Nex.
I have an upcoming startrail shoot and the location is after 3 miles and 2000 feet of gain. Sad but true, I often determine a lens purchase based on weight…in this case the ‘older’ model of the Sigma 19mm’s plastic body only weighs 4.9 ounces which is good for a backpacker.
The startrail shoot will also be rendered into a timelapse video of the starfield….normally lens speed is not of huge issue when doing star trails but star fields need a fast(er) lens.
Width/FL and speed was my problem=
I’ve already got the SEL1018, nice width but too slow for the rendering of the starfield.
I’ve got the SEL16 and honestly am hoping the IQ will be sharper with the Sigma 19mm.
The Rokinon for Nex has done well for me. It has the speed but sometimes you can actually be too wide.
I considered the SEL3518-it’s fast enough but with a crop sensor I find it not wide enough; in fact I’ve used it very little becasue it reminds me of a 50mm Nikkor I used on an F2 years ago and hated that focal length.
So next weekend I’m carrying the 19mm up a big hill and hoping for good results.
Having said all of that, the $99 price tag was just too hard not to gamble on.

I think you will be happy with the Sigma considering the cost and sharpness 😉 Thanks for the comments and info on your gear. I would also love to see the photos and whatever from your startrail adventure!

Jay, I am considering purchasing either the Sigma 19 or 30 mm lenses. I current have the Nex -6 and the 50 mm 1.8 prime as my only lens. I am torn between the two Sigmas. I have heard such glowing review of the 30 but don’t know if there will be enough difference between the 50 and 30. I run into problem when shooting indoors or when I want a wider view. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for your article it was very helpful. I’ve had my a6000 for awhile now and have decided to purchase an additional lens (I currently have the lens that came with the camera and also purchased the Sony 50mm 1.8). My question is if I’m looking for a good street camera that would also be able to capture landscapes out of the 19mm and 30mm is there one you would recommend over the other? I casually shoot and mostly either nature (live in Austin so tons of landscape and nature) but also shoot on vacation a lot (beaches and skyscrapers). When shooting recently a nature trail I found myself switching from my 50mm to kit lens very often bc obviously it was not catching the entire shot, which is making me lean towards the 19mm, but I’ve heard a lot of great things about the 30mm so I thought I’d get an experts opinion. Ideally I’d like both, but for my upcoming trip to NYC I’d like something that I could keep on the entire time instead of stopping at every location switching lens. Thanks for the help!

Sounds like you need the Zeiss 16-70mm f/4 OSS Lens 😉 Seriously though the Sigma 19mm is a great option for a wide view on the A6000. The 30mm is bit to narrow for Landscapes on the A6000 in my opinion, but also a great option. Both these lenses are Super sharp and affordable! Therefore the 19mm and 50mm would be a nice pair for you in my opinion. If you need 30mm, you will figure that out pretty quick, but I would recommend the wider Sigma 19mm f/2.8 lens to start with.